WHILE EXTREME CARE HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS
SELF-HELP DOCUMENT, THE AUTHOR AND/OR PROVIDERS OF THIS DOCUMENT ASSUMES
NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS, NOR IS ANY LIABILITY ASSUMED
FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION, CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT, BY THE
AUTHOR and / OR PROVIDER.

* a) connect the black wire coming from fixture to the
common screw of switch 1.
* b) connect the white wire coming from fixture to one of the remaining
main screws of switch 1
* c) connect the red wire coming from fixture to the last remaining main
screws of switch 1.
*e) please see under important notes in regards to the equipment
grounding conductor (bare wire).

At switch 2 box...

One cables entering this box coming from fixture.

* a) connect the black wire coming from fixture to the
common screw of switch 2.
* b) connect the white wire coming from fixture to one of the remaining
main screws of switch 2
* c) connect the red wire coming from fixture to the last remaining main
screws of switch 2.
* e) please see under important notes in regards to the equipment
grounding conductor (bare wire).

Important Notes:

By electrical codes you MUST have at least 6 inches
of wire in the electrical box itself, and also the wire must be able to
reach at least 3 inches outside the box, it can fail an electrical
inspection if the required min. wire length is not met. You may
have the wires a bit longer (within reason) but they cannot be shorter.
Also see the note on box fill further down in this article.

You are allowed to re-designate a white wire to be used as a hot
(ungrounded conductor) in switch circuits but in those cases where a
white wire is used in this manner, you must wrap a piece of black
electrical tape around that white wire inside the box to signify
that is being used as an ungrounded (hot) conductor.

You cannot re-designate a white wire that is actually
connected to the light fixture itself. At the fixture itself, the white
wire must be the grounded conductor (neutral) coming from the circuit
power supply cable.

In the configuration depicted on this page, the white
going between switch 1 & fixture, AND the white wire going between switch
2 & fixture has been re-designated to use as a switched ungrounded
conductor (hot) and therefore requires a piece of black electrical tape
around both ends. The white from the 'circuit power supply cable' is a
grounded conductor (neutral) therefore no re-designation has been done
and NO black tape on the ends of that wire.

Use wire nuts of the correct size to join wires
together. For fan / light combination fixtures, most likely it will have
wire connections, the white wire will be the grounded conductor
(neutral), any green wires are equipment grounding conductors, then there
will be two other wires one will be the switched ungrounded conductor
(hot) for the light, and one will be the switched ungrounded conductor
(hot) for the fan.. If you are confused please post to our forums for
further clarification.

What is not shown in the drawings to avoid confusion, is that each wire
cable also has a bare equipment grounding wire included. This wire is
connected to a grounding screw in each electrical box (if the box is
metal), joined either through the grounding screws in the box
itself or via a wire nut to the bare wire of the next cable entering / exiting the box, it
is also connected to any grounding screw (if there is one) on the switch
itself, as well as any grounding screw at the fixture (green wires that
attach to the fixture are grounds). Now if using a plastic box, it
is made of a material that is non conductive, however some plastic boxes
have a metal strip inside that can still be used to connect equipment
grounding wires, in the event that it does not use wire nuts to join the
bare grounding wires together. The equipment grounding wire (bare in most
cables) must be electrical conductively joined throughout the circuit.
Green wires are also equipment grounding conductors.

At the switch itself there are 3 main electrical screws, one of these 3
screws is distinctly different in color (perhaps darker) than the other
2. This screw connection is called the common screw. It is very important
that in order for the 2 switches to work as they are intended to that the
correct wire is attached to the common screw. Basically as depicted
in the drawings one switch has the ungrounded conductor (hot) from the
circuit power supply cable attached to the common screw, where the other
switch had the ungrounded conductor (hot) feed to the light fixture
itself.

Please also note that there are a variety of manufactures out there that
make 3 way switches so it is possible that the switch you buy may have
the common screw located in a different spot or side of the switch then
depicted in the drawings in this article, just make sure that the wire
depicted to go to the common screw of each of the switches is actually
connected to the common screw of the 3 way switch you bought. The other 2
wires going between the remaining screws of one switch to the other
switch does not matter as long as one wire of the 2 remaining wires go on
each of the remaining 2 screws of the screw.

If there is an equipment grounding screw on the 3 way switch it may be
green in color and be separated away from the main connections of the
switch and likely part of the metal frame that is also part of the
mounting structure of the switch.

Extensions to this Switch circuit...

Be Aware that there is a limit by code on how many
wires can be in a given size electrical box, when adding more wires to
the same box you may have to install a larger and / or deeper box to
allow space for more wires coming and out of the box.

The instructions here are based on the
fact that the circuit has already been wired to the configuration shown
in this article and we are now making the wiring changes for onward
power.

From the switch locations....

No onward power is available at the switch location
because there is no grounded conductor (neutral) present at either
switch.

From the fixture location...

At the fixture location both always on power and switched
power is available.(showing bellow the fixture
portion of the circuit)

Please note with having an additional onward wire cable at
the fixture location will make it 4 cables entering this box, there will
be a very high chance that you will have issues with box fill and will
require a much deeper box to be able to meet the box fill code
requirements. You may even have box fill issues with the 3 wire cables
entering the box without an onward power cable.

Onward Always on power...

Not shown in the diagram but the onward cable also has a bare wire
(equipment grounding conductor) that also must be connected to all the
other bare wires at the fixture electrical box.

Connection Instructions for onward cable
(always on)(only the changes to the wiring are
described here)

The colors of the wires depicted are based on
the standards and code requirements / configuration in the United States
and Canada. If you are viewing this site from a foreign country, your
wiring standards and color of wires may be different but the principal
and sequence of wiring will still remain the same. Therefore the
information in this article may still be of use to you regardless of what
country you may be in. Just translate the colors used here to the color
of wires used in your country in regards to ungrounded (hot) conductors
/ grounded conductors (neutral) and equipment grounding conductors as
well know applicable code requirements in your country.